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Research & strategy

Jobs To Be Done

People don't buy products. They hire them to make progress in their lives.

⏱ 13 minIntermediateBy Clayton Christensen, Bob MoestaSince 2003
“People don't want a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.”
— Theodore Levitt, marketing professor
Use it when

Understanding what users really need and why they switch.

You'll walk away with

Job stories and a Forces of Progress analysis.

Step 1 · The idea

People hire products to make progress

Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) says people don't buy products for what they are. They “hire” them to get a job done — to make progress in a specific situation in their life. When something does the job better, they “fire” the old product.

The idea was popularised by Harvard professor Clayton Christensen and practitioners like Bob Moesta, and is explained in Competing Against Luck (2016).

For designers, it changes the question from “Who is the user?” to “What is this person trying to get done, right now, and why?”

Nobody wakes up wanting a split-bill feature. After a group dinner, they want their money back without awkward chasing. That's the job.
Key concepts

Six ideas that make JTBD click

1

The job

The progress a person wants to make in a situation. It's stable over time — the solutions change.
Example: “Listen to music while I'm on the move” stayed the same from Walkman to iPod to Spotify.
2

Circumstance matters

The same person has different jobs in different situations. Situation predicts behaviour better than age or income.
Example: You order food differently for a quick work lunch vs. a Friday night with friends.
3

Three dimensions

Every job has functional (get it done), emotional (how I feel) and social (how others see me) parts.
Example: Paying for a group dinner: settle the bill (functional), feel fair (emotional), not look stingy to friends (social).
4

Your real competition

Anything people hire for the same job competes with you — including doing nothing or a workaround.
Example: A budgeting app competes with Excel, a notebook, and just ignoring money.
5

Job stories

A format that replaces user stories: When [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [outcome].
Example: When a payment fails, I want to know if my money was deducted, so I can stop worrying.
6

The switch timeline

Interview people who recently switched: first thought → passive looking → active looking → deciding → first use → satisfied or not.
Example: “What was happening the day you first thought: I need something better?”
Step 2 · Real story

The milkshake story

Christensen's most famous JTBD example: a fast-food chain that wanted to sell more milkshakes.

Customer survey
What would make our milkshake better?
☐ Thicker☐ More chocolatey☐ Cheaper☐ Bigger
Changes made… sales didn't move.
Step 1

The usual approach

They asked customers what the ideal milkshake is, made it, and nothing changed. The question was about the product, not the job.
Product-focused
Observation log
🕗 Before 8 AM≈ half of sales
Bought alone · only a milkshake · straight back to the car
Step 2

Watch what people do

Researchers spent long days in restaurants just watching. A surprising share of milkshakes sold early in the morning, to people alone, driving off.
Circumstance
Researcher: What job were you hiring this milkshake to do?
“I have a long, boring drive. I need something to do with one hand, and something that keeps me full till lunch.”
Step 3

Ask about the job

The job: make a boring commute more interesting and stay full until mid-morning. Functional and emotional.
The jobFunctional + emotional
Other “hires”
🍌 Banana
gone in 3 bites
🥯 Bagel
dry, needs two hands
🍩 Doughnut
crumbs, sticky fingers
🥤 Milkshake
thick, lasts the whole drive
Step 4

The real competition

The milkshake wasn't competing with other milkshakes. It was competing with bananas, bagels, doughnuts — and boredom.
Competition by job
Afternoon
👨‍👧 A parent buys a milkshake for their child after school.
Job: feel like a good parent with a small treat — but the thick shake takes the child forever to finish.
Step 5

Same product, different job

In the afternoon, the same milkshake is hired for a completely different job. One “ideal milkshake” can't serve both.
Circumstance
Ideas
🌅 Morning: even thicker, with small fruit bits to make the drive more interesting
⚡ Faster pickup so commuters don't wait
🧒 Afternoon: a smaller, thinner kids' size
Step 6

Design for the job

Once you know the job, the improvements are obvious. The shake gets better at the job people actually hire it for.
Job-based design

Retold from Clayton Christensen's talks and the book Competing Against Luck (2016). Screens are illustrations, not historical documents.

Step 3 · Play with it

The Forces of Progress

Why do people switch — or not? Two forces push toward a new solution, two hold people back. Change the sliders and see who wins.

Sending files back and forth; developers on Windows can't open Sketch.
Everyone in one browser file, live, with comments.
Will plugins and old files work? Will I be slower at first?
Years of shortcuts, libraries and files in the old tool.
AnxietyHabitPushPullSTAY · 11SWITCH · 16
They switch. Push and pull beat anxiety and habit by 5. Keep it that way by making the first use feel safe.
Step 4 · Try it

Job story builder

Write a job story for your own product. It's checked as you type.

Your job story

When I've paid for a group dinner, I want to get everyone's share back without chasing them, so I can stay friends and not lose money.

  • ✓The situation is specific (a real moment, not “when I use the app”).
  • ✓The motivation doesn't name a UI or feature.
  • ✓There's a clear outcome — the progress they want.
  • ✓It's written from the person's view, not about “users”.
Compare: a typical user story

As a user, I want a split bill button, so that I can send payment requests.

It names a persona and a feature. The job story names a moment and a need, which leaves room for better solutions.

Watch out

Common mistakes

✓ Do

  • Describe the situation, not the demographics
  • Keep your product and features out of the job
  • Include emotional and social parts, not just functional
  • Interview people who recently switched — memories are fresh
  • Look for competitors outside your category

✗ Avoid

  • Writing “jobs” that are really features (“I want to filter by date”)
  • Jobs that are too big (“be good with money”) or too small (“tap save”)
  • Asking people what they want instead of what they did
  • Only asking about your product, not their whole situation
  • Forgetting anxiety and habit: great products still lose to them
Cheat sheet

Jobs To Be Done in one screen

CORE IDEA   People hire products to make progress in a situation.
            They fire them when something does the job better.

JOB STORY   When [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [outcome].
DIMENSIONS  functional · emotional · social

FORCES OF PROGRESS
  toward switching:  push of the situation + pull of the new solution
  against switching: anxiety of the new solution + habit of the present
  → switch happens when push + pull > anxiety + habit

SWITCH TIMELINE
  first thought → passive looking → active looking → deciding → first use → satisfied?

GOOD QUESTIONS
  "Tell me about the day you first thought about this."
  "What did you try before? Why didn't it work?"
  "What almost stopped you from switching?"
Use it at work

Figma template

A ready-made canvas for running this framework with your team. Free, editable, and it works in Figma and FigJam.

Preview of the Jobs To Be Done canvas template
Figma & FigJam · free

Jobs To Be Done canvas

  • Job stories
  • Job dimensions
  • Forces of progress
  • Switch timeline
  1. 1Download the SVG, or copy it to your clipboard.
  2. 2In Figma or FigJam, drag the file onto the canvas — or paste with ⌘V / Ctrl V.
  3. 3Everything arrives as editable layers: type in the boxes, add stickies, duplicate rows.
Download SVGOpen in Figma ↗
Check yourself

Quick quiz

Get all three right to complete the lesson.

Question 1

1. Which of these is a well-written job story?

Question 2

2. In the milkshake story, what did the morning milkshake really compete with?

Question 3

3. In the Forces of Progress, which force works AGAINST switching?

Saved

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Sources and further reading

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